Goulet's Las Vegas Show Closes Early

Singer cites poor attendance for the Venetian stint he had been hoping would last at least three years.

LAS VEGAS — Robert Goulet has pulled the plug on a summer stint at the Venetian hotel-casino, saying he can't afford the $15,000 nightly showroom rental.

"I am angered and I am saddened," Goulet said Thursday. "I was hoping to be there for about three or four years. I enjoyed myself. I never sang better in my life."

Goulet ended the show after Monday's performance, four weeks into a nine-week run. The showroom withheld box-office receipts on Tuesday.

Rogo & Rove, the company headed by the singer and his business-manager wife, Vera, was dealing with an overhead of $200,000 a week. Goulet said the company would have broken even with 50% attendance.

But attendance averages were only in the 30% to 40% range, he said. Ticket prices ranged from $50 to $75.

"We came at the wrong time of the year," Goulet said, adding that audiences would have been better in September, during the city's convention season.

The showroom is not a hotel operation. It is run by H&H of Nevada, which has a master lease on the space and rents the venue to show producers.

"Every time we've done one of these deals, we get money upfront. The run only goes for as long as you give us money," said H&H partner Scott Iwamoto.

Iwamoto said he tried to be sympathetic to the fact that the Goulets' key investor backed out just before the show's July 3 opening. "We let them start rehearsals without having come up with the money."

Vera Goulet "had hopes of getting another investor and being able to pull this thing off, but we weren't paid," Iwamoto said. "The only thing we can do is keep box-office receipts. They weren't sufficient for the room rental.

"Robert is a world-class performer," Iwamoto added, "and we'd still welcome him back."